Girls Camp: The Run-Down

I've been torn between posting one entry per day or just doing an overall summary of camp. Looks like I've decided on the summary. Easier now that it's been a week and I'm already forgetting so many of the details that made camp wonderful.

Instead of boring you with the day to day details, I figured I'd just give some highlights... maybe things I've learned.

* I CAN go to the bathroom and only use 4 sheets of toilet paper. Probably too personal for a family blog, but I am REALLY excited about this one. We were lucky enough to have flushing toilets (and showers!) at camp, which were definitely better than the biffies I used as a teen; however, due to old plumbing and 100+ people using them, we were only supposed to use 4 sheets of TP per flush. Otherwise disastrous clogging and over filling could occur (as seen from others' mis-use of the TP). I learned a new skill and look forward to using LESS toilet paper at home, lol.
* Showering in flip flops makes you feel like you're showering with your clothes on. Over 100 girls using the same showers = GROSS! I won't even begin to describe the hair clumps and various nasty surprises in the stalls. Needless to say flip flops were a MUST! It was quite entertaining trying to undress and dress in said stalls without letting anything, including your own feet, touch the ground. And even after taking everything off, I still had to double check to make sure I also removed my underwear. Something about wearing shoes in the shower makes you feel like you're forgetting something. However, I am SUPER grateful we had showers. Every camp should have them, hehe.
* Sleeping bags are equivalent to saran wrap when it comes to marinating something in it's own juices. Every night I went to bed fairly campy but decent. Yet every morning I woke up feeling GROSS and stinky. What happens while I'm sleeping? Wait! Don't answer that! LOL. I am grateful to the Cechini's for lending me camping gear, otherwise it would have been me, the plywood and a blanket. I was SO unprepared for camp! Thanks, Annie, for getting me ready! (Complete with sleeping bag, lantern, air mattress, and insights into all the extras I should bring that they never told me about).
* I think I accidentally ended up at FAT camp rather than girls camp. First meal there (lunch) was ONE dollar sandwich with chicken salad and five grapes. I think we had one other side, but it must have been too small for me to remember. Another meal was a turkey sandwich with a side of 5 grapes and 2 chips (seriously! not exaggerating at all!). I should have lost more weight than I did, but figure I won't get released until I lose more, so there is an upside! In all reality, the food was delicious! There was just SO little to go around. At least for a big girl like me. I need sustenance. But, as much as I was more-than-hungry (which sounds better than starving) at camp, I am happy for the awesome stories the lack of food has provided, hehe. Ask me sometime about the brownies!
* I'm amazed at how often people who have never been to this form of girls camp (aka. my level leader Lisa and I) get asked our opinions on what should happen next or are expected to know how everything went the year before. It was SO funny! I think our tag line that week was "I don't know." If I had been thinking, I would have made us shirts. By the end of the week I just started making things up. I know, naughty. But it was a lot of fun. I suppose we were just so awesome at the "fake it 'til you make it" thing that people really thought we knew what we were doing!
* Speaking of awesome, I have a new name. Sister Awesome. And that's not because I'm awesome but because I use the word SOOOOOO often. It drove some of my YCLs crazy, but became a joke by the end of camp. My co-hort in crime was Sister Fabulous. But hers was because she really is Fabulous! (Okay... and because that was her "buzz" word for the week.) Some of my other leader friends became Sister Cool and Sister Dude... though Sister Dude would like to be renamed. lol.
* Camp allows people to be themselves in ways you'd never imagine. Not myself. I'm always crazy so there was nothing new except the girls had the chance to see me ALL the time. I warned them, but apparently they didn't believe me! They do now, hehehe. But really I'm speaking more about getting to know my girls better. I LOVED watching them bloom and open up. Girls I thought were quiet and reserved are actually quite animated and fun! My favorite transformation was EK. I'd always known her to be so quiet! I don't think I'd heard a full sentence out of her before camp. And then, suddenly she is this crazy (in a good way), outgoing YCL who is the life of the party! I LOVED it! I could go on and on mentioning all my girls and they way they've blossomed, but I don't have room here. But I hope they know I was watching (in a non-creepy way) and that I enjoyed being a part of their camp experience. I feel SO incredibly blessed to have been there and to have seen this transformation.
* On a not-so-happy side note, I don't think this "transformation" will hold back in the "real" world. I've already seen some of my girls return to their quiet camouflage. In truth, it makes me sad. I think camp is how the world would be if we didn't always feel like we were being judged. We'd be more open and more able to be ourselves. I hope we can create more experiences soon that allow our YW the same freedom to be themselves as they had at camp. Regardless, my girls are AMAZING, AWESOME, TALENTED and oh so loved by SO many leaders, parents, and friends.
* Certifications seemed to be more for me than for the YW. Although they were the ones getting signed off on everything, I feel like I learned the most. This time around first aid, fire building, knife care/sharpening, and finding my way seemed to mean SO much more to me than when I was a youth. I realized I DON'T know how to treat someone in shock (and probably still don't... need to keep practicing that one). I don't know how to do the Heimlich (called something else now). And I don't know what to do in emergencies besides call 9-1-1, which is extremely difficult in a place where there is no cell phone reception. And yet, I was caring for 27 girls who could, at any moment, need me for any number of emergencies. I'm grateful for Sister Geurts, our camp nurse, on whom I could rely for great information and fast action when I needed her. I LOVED getting to know her better and appreciate the opportunity to ride up to and back from camp with her. She ROCKS! I also learned how to find north from the North Star and the Sun. Duh! But I didn't ever get it. Thanks to the amazing Sister Seamen for teaching not just the Level 2 girls, but me, how to find my way when I get lost!
* Never underestimate the power of the Spirit. I didn't feel like our girls were getting enough of the Spirit at camp. The first few days were all about certify, certify, certify and the only moments we really discussed the Lord were during morning and evening devotionals. It wasn't until Thursday that we had an AMAZING impromptu devotional from our stake YW president that the Spirit was strong. And it just kept building through meetings, devotionals, and bishop firesides until culminating in a POWERFUL testimony meeting. There I learned that girls were gaining testimonies of scripture study all week and that lives had been changed through the devotionals we'd been holding. Our Father LOVES His daughters and He will not allow our weaknesses to keep those girls from knowing Him. The only one that prevent that is the individual. As long as His daughters seek Him, He will always be found.
* Our YW are enduring trials that make me shake in my boots. I could not believe what I was hearing during testimony meeting. Stories of personal tragedy, death of parents and loved ones, divorce and more. And yet, through it all, these girls testified that they knew God loved them. They spoke on the importance of scriptures, forever families, camp, church, and the Spirit. They shared over coming the negative influence of friends or the tests of the adversary. I cried and could not stop crying. My heart broke for so many. My soul cried out, "I know your pain!" I wanted to hold them all and tell them they were not alone. But I believe they already know that. They know their Savior and they are trying to live worthy of having His spirit to be with them. It was/is I who needs to be reminded that I am not alone, and these girls exemplify that.
* Camp, regardless of the format, can be the means of mighty transformation in the lives and hearts of the young women and their leaders. It provides and opportunity to take a break from the world and commune with nature... commune with God. When the beeps and rings and streaming music is silenced, they... WE... can finally hear the sweet whisperings of the Spirit. We can feel the peace of God's love instead of the vibrating of an inpatient phone. I need to make more opportunities to step away from the fast lane of life and, instead, enjoy the meandering back roads of nature.
* The Lord really does provide a way. "For I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them." To me this has come in the form of other leaders and friends. I gained a new appreciation for the other leaders at camp. I developed bonds with women I would never have given a chance. I learned from them, was edified by them. Some days I feel like the Grinch whose heart grew ten sizes! Except mine has grown a hundred sizes and threatens to burst within my chest. I love my fellow YW leaders SO much. I lean on them. I need them. They have kept me going when I wanted to stop. They have picked me up when I have fallen. They hold me when I need to cry or laugh with me until the rooster crows. They support me instead of judge me and love me when I can't seem to love myself. Oh my goodness I am SO blessed! I call each of you... my co-horts and friends... each of you my miracle. I am grateful to you, whether near or far, for sticking with me and loving me. This journey would not be the same without you. It would not be worth it without you. The grandest vistas in the world are not as great if you have no one to share them with. At least, that is how I feel.

So camp made me cry, made me hungry, made me dirty and, sometimes, frustrated. However, the not-so-greats are already fading and all I can remember from camp are the awesome moments with the young women I adore (more than life), the women I love with my whole soul, and the Lord who, despite myself, loves me still.